According to enFilmbase’s China film boxoffice statistics, mainland boxoffice gross in the 36th week (Sep 03-09, 2012) was $61.44 million, down 20% from last week. Moviegoers this week totaled 10.84 million, for a decrease of 15% when compared to last week’s numbers.
Mainland China boxoffice market was not as prosperous as been expected this past weekend, even with a head-to-head showdown that four Hollywood tentpoles hit on silver screens. Newly-released “The Expendables 2” wound up in first place with a marvelous $25.16 million over six days in release. Performances of “Prometheus” and the two superheroes-“Batman” and “Spiderman”, were a bit underwhelming this past week. “Prometheus” grossed $15.54 million this past seven days for a new total of $20.13 million. "The Dark Knight Rises” hauled in $11.06 million over the past week, which ranked third place of the weekly chart. “The Amazing Spider-Man” added $8.13 million the past week for a solid $43.99 million total. This week, mainland boxoffice was undeniably dominated by a string of Hollywood titles for another time, which accounted for 98% of the weekly total gross.
Along with newly-released “The Expendables 2”, a bunch of Hollywood titles including "The Dark Knight Rises", "The Amazing Spider-man" and “Prometheus”, played the vanguard in this tide of Hollywood invasion. But the much-anticipated boxoffice blowout did not show up this past week. With a total weekly gross of $61.44 million, the business in the past week slumped 20% from previous week. The expected-blooming market turned out to be the doom and gloom market, which was caused by the competition counteraction of the four Hollywood tentpoles which suppressed and constrained with each other in the mainland theaters.
The aging tough guys of "Expendables 2" strong-armed the boxoffice competition with a chart-topping $25.16 million in mainland China ticket sales over the past week. It is considered that a large proportion of the audience was aged over 25, which gave strength to its longer term prospects. The film follows the surprise success in 2010 of the original "Expendables," which totaled $31.57 million in mainland China. Both the original and sequel of the action film were brought to mainland theaters by flat-fee transaction, instead of revenue-sharing mode.
The science-fiction movie “Prometheus”, which is a prequel to director Ridley Scott's “Alien”, wound up at second place of the weekly chart, adding $15.54 million the past week for a solid $20.13 million total. The mega- budget film is visuals vivid, stunning and magnificent on a technical level, but its narrative structure is unable to handle the philosophical dimension of the plot. The prequel just received a mix of reviews from audiences, especially from female audiences.
Performances of the two superheroes-“Batman” and “Spiderman” in this past week, was not strong as they got debuted in the previous week. “Batman” and “Spiderman” both slowed down at boxoffice over the past week, earning $11.06 million and $8.13 million respectively.
According to enFilmbase statistics, “The Expendables 2” reigned over mainland boxoffice screenings, enjoying 28% of the market share in terms of total number of screenings, which was followed by “Prometheus”. The science-fiction movie took in 20% of the weekly screenings. “Batman” and “Spiderman” took additional 18% and 15% for each title.
Next week (Sep. 10-16, 2012), the films below will be released in Mainland China. Another Hollywood hit “Resident Evil: Retribution” is about to start its theater run on September 14. The science-fiction thriller film is the 5th installment of the Resident Evil series. Another highly-anticipated movie, “White Deer Plain”, which was scheduled for September 13, had been postponed due to "technical issues". As of yet, no future date has been planned for its screening.
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